VZCZCXRO3425
RR RUEHHM
DE RUEHHI #1232/01 1420938
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 220938Z MAY 06 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY HANOI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2039
INFO RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 1152
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 6716
RUEHPF/AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH 3557
RUEHVN/AMEMBASSY VIENTIANE 3815

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 001232 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS AND DRL/IRF 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PHUM KIRF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM VM
SUBJECT: BAPTISTS MEET IN VIETNAM, HIGHLIGHT THEIR SITUATION 
 
Ref: 05 HCMC 994 and previous 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  The Baptist World Alliance - an 
international umbrella group for some (perhaps 30 million, 
according to their President), but not all, of the world's 
Baptists - visited Vietnam May 16-21 to meet with the GVN 
and hold a large meeting of Baptists in Ho Chi Minh City. 
The delegation, which included the BWA's President (David 
Coffey, from the UK) and prominent Baptist officials from 
Texas, California, Virginia, India, Korea, Vietnam and the 
UK, was originally concerned that they would not be able to 
meet anyone from the GVN and would be blocked from including 
members of the separate Baptist umbrella organizations in 
Vietnam, only one of which is registered with the GVN.  The 
delegation was able to hold high-level meetings (at the vice- 
chairman level) with the Commission on Religious Affairs 
(CRA) and the Fatherland Front in Hanoi and with the CRA in 
HCMC, and the GVN agreed to include all of the Vietnamese 
Baptist representatives, including those who are in the 
process of applying for legal status.  Their 500-person 
meeting and gala dinner in HCMC had to be modified to 
accommodate GVN concerns, but was held successfully.  The 
unregistered Baptist groups in Vietnam told us that they are 
able to worship freely, but are waiting for GVN approval of 
their registration applications.  The Baptists reported that 
Pastor (and former USG person of concern) Than Van Truong is 
facing official harassment at the local level in Bac Giang 
Province north of Hanoi.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (U) The 16-member delegation met with the Charge for 90 
minutes at the Embassy on May 16, taking photos and 
describing the background of the organization (which does 
not include the large U.S.-based Southern Baptist 
Conference).  Each of the five Vietnamese Baptist 
denominations present gave its own short presentation; all 
were variations on the same script:  things were difficult 
in the 1990s, and gradually improved since 2000.  Conditions 
improved markedly in late 2004/early 2005 with the new 
Ordinance on Religion (and its implementing decree) and the 
Instruction on Protestantism, to the point where they are 
now able to carry out activities freely.  Four of the five 
groups have not yet been registered, but the CRA reportedly 
has promised them they should have their recognition by this 
summer, perhaps by July.  They would like more freedom to 
open schools and churches and conduct direct charitable 
works without the involvement of the Fatherland Front, but 
are generally satisfied with current conditions.  The U.S. 
members of the delegation said they are in regular contact 
with U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious 
Freedom John Hanford as well as with their Congressional 
representatives. 
 
¶3. (U) In HCMC, the group said that the CRA asked the 
delegation to present a list of participants (both Baptist 
and non-Baptist) for the evening gala dinner event and asked 
that they consider revising their schedule, omitting the 
meeting and worship service prior to the commencement of the 
banquet.  This is ultimately what happened:  the event was 
shortened by two hours and recast as an informal dinner. 
 
¶4. (U) HCMC Poloff attended the May 20 function.  The event 
included a lengthy period of religious songs and welcome 
speeches by members of the visiting international 
delegation.  During each speech, each representative thanked 
the GVN for allowing the Baptist World Alliance to convene 
in Ho Chi Minh City.  They spoke at length about what it 
meant to be a Baptist and how they were honored to be in 
Vietnam.  The speeches and dinner proceeded without 
interruption and included no overt political themes. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Not all Baptists are so positive.  On Wednesday, 
May 17, Embassy Poloff met with Pastor Than Van Truong (who 
was, until September of last year, confined in a mental 
hospital for what appeared to be political reasons. 
Reftel.)  He contacted Poloff to express his concern over 
some incidents his Baptist congregation has faced in Bac 
Giang Province north of Hanoi.  Although Truong has spent 
most of his time in the south, he is originally from Bac 
Giang and has tried to move back to Bac Giang to conduct 
religious activities there.  However, he has faced 
opposition from local authorities in Bac Giang who point out 
that his legal household registration is in the south and he 
has no legal right to reside or work in Bac Giang. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Truong's Bac Giang city congregation formed in 
January 2006, Truong said, and applied for recognition on 
May 11 of this year.  Truong reported that the week of May 
 
HANOI 00001232  002 OF 002 
 
 
8, the village-level People's Committee Chairman showed up 
at his house and told him to stop his religious activities, 
threatened to attack him physically, and called 
Protestantism "an American religion."  Truong said the 
Chairman brought a security cadre to the meeting and said 
"God can be in the South, not in the North" and that Bac 
Giang will never have Protestant groups.  Another official 
apparently went to the houses of some of Truong's 
congregation to demand they take down crosses they had on 
display, and to tell them that Truong will soon be arrested 
and that they should stay away from him, Truong reported. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Truong showed what appeared to be genuine copies of 
summonses he has received from local security officials in 
Bac Giang requiring his presence at the police station, and 
said that the local authorities have challenged his right to 
reside in Bac Giang. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Poloff told Pastor Truong that we take his case 
seriously, that we will recommend to the GVN that they 
favorably consider his church's registration application and 
that we are concerned about reports of possible abuse. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Truong was quite agitated at the meeting and 
peppered his discussion with strident criticism of the GVN 
and demands for political change.  At one point, he and his 
wife became convinced that we were being surveilled by a 
group of "security agents" sitting nearby in the hotel 
restaurant where we were meeting; a brief encounter with 
Poloff later revealed that the "agents" in question were, in 
fact, Korean businessmen.  Truong displayed photos of the 
meeting in his home where the commune Chairman had 
supposedly "tried to beat him."  The photos showed two men 
seated in a living room sipping tea. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Comment:  For the most part, Baptists in Vietnam 
have told us that they are able to worship in Vietnam and 
have benefited from the Ordinance on Religion and the Prime 
Minister's Instruction on Protestantism.  The problems they 
have faced have seemed more bureaucratic than anything else. 
We are reasonably optimistic that their applications for 
recognition and registration will be approved eventually, 
but have been pressing the GVN to do so without much further 
delay.  As always, there are cases to address, Pastor 
Truong's being the main one at the moment.  His organization 
in Bac Giang should be granted the same consideration as any 
Protestant organization in Vietnam and should benefit from 
expeditious recognition and be free of GVN interference. 
Truong himself, however, presents a more complicated case. 
His vehement anti-government and anti-Party rhetoric injects 
a problematic political element into what should be a 
relatively routine religious administration problem.  It is 
obvious that he has had problems with the authorities in Bac 
Giang, but whether these problems reflect Bac Giang's 
reluctance to host a vociferous regime critic who weaves 
politics and religion together or a genuine antipathy 
towards Protestantism and an unwillingness to respect the 
PM's Instruction and the Ordinance on Religion is a question 
we need to investigate further.  End Comment. 
 
BOARDMAN